Seventeen Forever
by various albeit schemes
Summary: You won't be seventeen forever." he said, looking down at her. In that instance she knew that Matt Saracen would never be enough man for her. JulieTim Mid-season 1... Read and Review.
1. Prologue

_Authors Note: The first chapter is told through the eyes of a teacher. I repeat, a teacher. Just the first chapter. It's set mid-S1. The rest of the chapters won't be, but this is the prologue._

**Prologue**

_He didn't know it, but he was the matchmaker._

His nose was stuffy. It felt like caterpillars were trying to find it's way up it. The inside of his throat felt like somebody had taken a razorblade and shaved off several layers of skin. He was constantly sneezing, and Texas had this way of making his allergies (which were non-existent back home) flare up at any moment. However, he had came here, to Texas, for love, and he'd suffer through the allergy seasons for love.

He was kind of a bitch today, and since Alice was pregnant at home, he didn't need to take that stress home. He'd get rid of it all here. New seating plan. No more Riggins at the back of the class being all chatty. Actually, he didn't know if he saw Riggins utter a single word, but people talked to him. Mostly girls. He decided to put Riggins at the front, and who to go next to? Who wouldn't talk to Riggins…? Saracen? No, they were football buddies or whatever. Stupid Americans and their cracked games. Julie Taylor would work out just fine.

Or so he thought.

He sneezed the next day when putting the new seating plan on the chalkboard, and because one sneeze is too lonely, the second one fallowed shortly after. He dropped the chalk when he brought his hands to his mouth so other people wouldn't be covered in his mucus.

Riggins arrived, not late, but exactly on time. He got in just as the bell rang. When he noticed there was a seating plan on the board and gave him a look that said, thank you. In that moment he really respected Timothy Riggins. As a teenager he was a wreck, all freckles and glasses, and though he didn't have the natural good looks that this guy had, or the girl problem, he felt like he really got Riggins.

Is it that all guys are the same?

Julie was already sitting in his seat, her pen in hand writing out the daily assignment, the thought for the day, where he put a quote on the board and they put their opinion. Miss Taylor had a habit of castigating everything that he whipped at her. She was his star pupil. Why did he put her with Riggins again?

Mandy came up to his desk, and as usual, wanted to talk about the Disney channel or whatever. She was such a weird kid, but she did make for a good story to tell his fiancé. "Hey Mr. Watts," Mandy smiled. It was obvious to everybody, with the exception of himself, of course, that Mandy had a unexplainable crush on him. Not that it was only him, it was pretty much all teachers.

"You should really be working on your assignment." he said after a couple minutes of Mandy telling him all about Amanda Bynes' new movie.

Mandy hesitated and then smiled. "Talk to you later?" she said it in a very hopeful voice.

She got back to her desk after about ten minutes which seemed like forever.

A couple days passed, and as he gave his ministry mandated lesson he randomly assigned a project. He saw the usual partnering… Clarke and Saracen… Mandy and surprise, surprise nobody… they were all usual except Riggins and Taylor had partnered up.

He heard a, "You wanna be my partner?" and then looked over and saw Julie reply with a blush and a, "Sure," and they got right on their assignment, something he hadn't seen done in a long time. He patted himself on the back for that one. He was making Riggins learn. He was man. He was god. He was Mr. Amazing Teacher.

His allergies started going away about six weeks, and his grade ten class was getting less and less involved with class, and more and more involved with football. The first football player to approach him was Riggins.

"So, you want an extra credit assignment?" he asked, looking at Riggins. He was leaning back in his chair and staring at the young football stud who was standing, without evidence of a backpack.

Riggins nodded and admitted, "I failed last year."

"I thought you had to pass to play."

"I had English on the off-season… so I was allowed to fail."

He nodded, "So, you're a junior."

"Yeah."

"And what does the new coach say about this?" It was obvious from his tone that (a) he didn't care much for football and (b) he didn't know the coach's name. He did, but that was irrelevant. And Football wasn't cool in Manchester, anyway. Well, football was, but the kind Manchester United played, not the sort the Dillon Panthers played.

"Listen, Mr. H, you're a nice guy," Riggins started, and really, he wasn't, but for some reason everybody in the US thought if you had a British accent you were trustworthy. He used to be normal, if he wanted to seem intelligent, he'd have to say something intelligent, and if he wanted somebody to trust him, he'd have to stop lying and stealing. But then a funny thing happened… he moved to Texas. He became "that British guy". Funnily enough, he was never called that back home.

"I know," Mr. H smiled, happy his image, his persona, was still believable. The persona of being pretentious yet happy-go-lucky. "Go on."

"I need to bring up my average."

Mr. H nodded. The truth was, the perky, good-looking new guidance teacher who almost every male teacher had a crush on, had sent him a memo about Riggins. This was one of the reasons for the new seating plan, though his allergies had been sort of a reason on their own. "Extra credit assignment?"

Riggins nodded.

"How about a test?"

There was a look of panic on Riggins' face. Mr. H had to admit that at times he was willing to be lenient and dishonour his beloved persona. "An essay." he said firmly. Riggins looked relieved, "In class," his face fell. Mr. H was well aware that Riggins hadn't written any of his own papers, and had deducted marks accordingly. However, he didn't want Riggins to flunk his extra credit project. That would be a waste of both their time. He decided it was time to throw a bone. "You can find a partner, if you wish."

There was a glow in his eye. He knows exactly who he was too chose.


	2. One

**One**

Matt was being a dick. Not that she would vocalize this to anybody, but he was becoming somebody new. It was as if Matt had gone through a personality revolution… and at times she wanted to break up with him, but the bastard had her heart. She loved Matthew Saracen and she was willing to do practically anything for him. She fancied herself Juliet in the Shakespearean drama that was their lives. Matt was her Romeo, even if this football thing was sort of turning him into a different guy. People change, but she could change too, right?

She knew she was sort of overreacting about Matt changing. It just really pissed her off that everybody in this town was so obsessed with football. It was just a game. She had to admit, she liked watching the super bowl, but she didn't live football, though she came close, what with her dad.

But she was going to try. And in the end she was sure that was what counted, putting a little effort into it. It wasn't that bad anyway, he spent tons of time with her, and was the nicest guy on the team by far.

Julie liked school, obviously, but her favourite class by far was English. Normally she sat next to Lois and her beloved boyfriend, Matt, who annexed himself between her and Landry. They took up an entire table center stage. It was ideal.

When she saw the new seating plan, what with the fab four broken up, she was saddened. Then, came the A-Bomb. She was to sit next to Tim Riggins

She believed everything she'd heard about him. Really, she was quite impressionable. Or, another might say, gullible. She'd even believed the rumour that he was a scientologist. She'd never seen him around her church. He also knew he stole Jason Street's girlfriend. What a dick.

A month or so ticked by on the old calendar, days passed and sitting next to him wasn't so bad. They even partnered up together on numerous small assignments. They made a good team, she wasn't afraid to boss him, and he wasn't afraid to listen. Still, she wouldn't consider herself Tim Riggins' friend. Far from it. She was an introvert of the highest order, and she had a high expectation of friends.

One day that fall really stood out, and that was the day, in November when Matt told her he loved her. He didn't pick a very romantic setting, really, he had selected the hall in between third period English and the her fourth class econ, which she had with none of her friends he pulled her into a very un-Matt-like kiss in them middle of the hall. She had a look of utter bemusement on her face. She didn't really like being the center of attention, and she already had to be dating a football player, and then she had to have a dad who was the head coach. She was already involved with a lot of gossip.

Then he pulled away from her and muttered the three little words that made her so _happy._ So fulfilled. So… happy to be alive. You wouldn't think that hearing I Love You could sound so good, but it made her feel appreciated and of course she reciprocated with a, "I love you too," and a kiss.

She didn't really tell anybody but when she got home, but her mother and father looked at her differently. It was if they didn't suppose that their daughter had kissed a boy or something until the hallway thing.

"Julie, phone for you." her mom said. Julie grabbed the phone and it was, surprise, surprise, Lois. Her only girl friend at her new school.

"Ju-leeeeeeeeeeeeeeee… I heard Matt dropped the L-Boooomb!" Lois said all giddy and happy for her. But wasn't it Lois who thought that Matt was bad news from the beginning?

Julie laughed slightly on the phone, her parents exchanging weird looks, probably because Lois talked so loud her father, who was half-way across the room, could hear every word. She didn't get what was so bad about love, her parents were obviously deranged. "Yeah." she said, deciding to avoid the party-poopers and head into her bedroom.

"Oh. My. God. This. Is. So. Great."

Julie found it odd that Lois went from all squeaky to one-word sentences, but it was something she'd decided to live with when she'd befriended Lois. "I know." she had to smile, her best friend did have a way of making her feel… important. A feeling she rarely got elsewhere…

The phone call faded into the night, and she was glad she didn't have to put up with any "You don't know what love is!!" lectures with her over-protective parents.

Another week passed before anything worth writing home about happened to Julie Taylor. It was in Mr. H's class. Riggins, out of the blue, said. "I'm failing."

The truth was, Julie and Tim might sit together, but they didn't talk much, so this struck Julie as odd.

"Ok."

He gave her a look that said, no, little missy, it's not okay, and for that one moment she thought she could love Tim Riggins, but, alas, it passed. "I want you to help me."

"Help you what?"

He didn't even answer.

"You need pointers on football?"

He rolled his eyes.

"Seriously, what?"

He finally answered, "Write a essay."

Oh, he wanted her to tutor him. Like her parents would let her. Like she wanted too. But… she kind of felt needed, and that felt nice. It was satisfying. She gave a smile, a weirdly real one, and said, "When?"

He told her that he had a week to do it. She nodded vigilantly and they set a date, actually, two dates. The first one was next Saturday, which was game-day.

The rest of the day was pretty boring, but it passed fairly quickly. The week passed with the same quickness. She met him at the library, well, to be fair, she got their first. She'd talked to Mr. H and he'd given her the topic. It was so simple she'd laughed. _Write a series of paragraphs on your favourite animal._

He was, surprisingly, on time. Right on the dot. And he seemed surprised she was there early.


	3. Two

**Two**

She was cute, that much was true. He found it hard to lie when around her, but she never asked him about the truth, really. She asked him to write this, or research something about Anne Boleyn on their project, and he felt weirdly compelled to do it.

He didn't want to trace it back to this, but in the end it all came back to, the first day they sat together. Her elbow touched his forearm. He knew it sounded stupid, he knew it was weird, that one touch, one glance was enough to have him smitten… He didn't like the situation he'd landed himself in at all.

She was, of course, oblivious to the fact he was crazily turned on by her long, golden tresses and reading, and just general smartness…

Lyla kissed him, right? Was that how it happened, or did he force it on her? All he knew now was that he was the bad guy in this, though he was pretty sure Lyla knew what she was getting into. At least Street didn't forgive her… Not yet. But everybody knew Lyla and Jason were _forever._ She, certainly, had made it very clear that she loved _him_. She loved Street, she'd never had feelings for him. Though she'd come to his bed so quickly, he felt cheated out of something.

Caught up in his thoughts, Julie taking down some dumb-ass thought-of-the-day thing he never did, he heard a, "Do you ever do the assignments?" she tilted her head in such a way he felt like he could feel Julie Taylor's soul through her eyes. And in his opinion, Julie Taylor's soul was kind of cool. Maybe he should put the Lyla thoughts on hold, and work on a new conquest.

No, he wasn't really that stupid. He didn't think there was a chance in hell he could win Julie Taylor over. In fact, just the thought made him want to laugh a little.

"Nope."

Julie made a gun with her hand and pretended to shoot herself.

"Suicide."

Man, she was weird.

But weird good, not weird bad.

Days passed until he saw Lyla in school. They just sort of stood there, and then Lyla gave him a look that read, _not here, you asshole. _He knew he was an asshole, but Lyla did something just as bad as her. At this moment all romantic feelings toward her drained. She was such a bitch.

A week or so later Julie Taylor agreed to help him do some fucking stupid assignment. When Tim asked her at first she seemed reluctant, but then she seemed to hop in with both feet. It was either in our out with that freak.

The Saturday came quickly. They were doing it in the morning, as the game was later. After five minutes small talk on various equally stupid subjects he'd initiated she said, "Do you want to work now?" and she said it with this gleam in her eye which was both intimidating and incredibly hot.

"What's your favourite animal?"

He avoided eye contact, he didn't really want to say the truth. What was cool, exciting…

"Zebra" was what came out of his mouth.

"Um, okay…" Julie said, not seeing why his favourite animal would be a Zebra. But she was okay with it. "Write a series of paragraphs on it." His eyes glazed over. A series of paragraphs. On the topic of Zebras, which he knew nothing about.

He picked up the pen and started writing about his real favourite animal. Cats.

_Cats by Tim Riggins_, he wrote at the top of the page. Then he wrote down, _Who doesn't like them? Cat's are different. They can fend for themselves, they don't need anybody to shelter them. A cat is their own master, they don't slobber all over you like dogs do._

He wrote on and on like that. Then Julie picked up his paper. Reading it there was a weird glow in her eyes… and in that moment his spine stood up straight, and his hair felt messy, and he felt really inadequate… but then she started making red marks on the papers.

"Are you going to the game tonight?"

She looked up, surprised he was speaking, "Excuse me?" did she not hear him?

"Are you going to the game tonight?"

A smirk emerged from the corner of Julie's small, pink mouth. "I always go, Riggins."

She called him Riggins. Huh. "You don't seem like the football type."

Julie raised her eyebrows, and said, surprisingly believably, "I love football."

"You love football?" he was genuinely surprised, because he couldn't imagine her playing football. But then he realized that she was his coach's daughter. He couldn't believe he'd let that slip from his brain.

"Well, I don't smoke football."

"I smoke football?"

"You smoke football."

Then his first genuine smile of the day came… Julie Taylor was funny… But when her perfectly coloured wheat hair slipped around her face, and her eyes were full and looking down at her assignment, he wished her name wasn't Taylor, he wished it was something else, anything else.

A moment of uncomfortable silence passed between the two.

In order to break it, he felt obliged to say, "See you Tuesday…" and he really needed to get out of there. He didn't know why… he wanted to remove himself from the imminent threat she posed to him… what part of him he wasn't sure. His ego? His libido? Somehow he knew Julie Taylor could, and maybe would, break him. He just felt so becoming with her. Like his hair was too long, too greasy, to tangled, like his opinions were too muddled, too unorganized… just simply inadequate. His pulse accelerated and his head jerked up in a way that hurt his neck. He'd never felt like that before, and quite honestly, he didn't like it. He also didn't realize what this meant, that this was, most certainly, a crush.


	4. Three

**Three**

She was happy to go to the game. Really, she was. _Nothing delighted her more then Football. _Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration. She really, _really_ hated Football. Football was that thing that she was forced to listen to on the radio, and took every ounce of attention away from her. There were times when she wished she was born in another town, to other parents who actually paid attention to her. She hated the way her father would only pay attention to her if she was doing something "inappropriate". Example; having a celibate relationship with Matt Saracen. What was so bad about that? Why did her dad only care about her when she was in trouble? Why did he care about game plans more than his daughter?

This is why Julie was mad when her father was mad she was helping a peer. Why couldn't her father be happy that his daughter had excellent morals?

"So, what if I come home and I say, I've been helping sick children, dad, would that be so-"

"I don't deal in what-Ifs, little missy!"

She sent her dad a look of absolute hate, one she'd never sent anybody before, "Don't interrupt me like I'm not worth anything," in that moment she hated everybody and everything. She hated her dad for ignoring her, her mother for letting him, she hated everybody involved with Football, she hated the NFL, she especially hated Tom Brady because he was such a bastard. She hated TMU, she hated Cowboys in general, she hated cheerleaders, and Lyla Garrity, she hated inflatable's. In that moment she even hated Matt. Tears came to her eyes and she left her living room. In that moment she wanted to never come back. She wanted to board a train and be a hobo… she wanted to ride the rails.

She didn't go to her bedroom, she left the house. Julie could see her parents' eyes on her through the window in the living room. They looked hurt, but still they looked disapproving… how could they be so disapproving? She wanted to hit both of them. She had recently been happy, so happy, she was even becoming friends with some of her father's players… like Tim, and obviously Matt… but what was she, not good enough? Too good? She was sick of her father's double standard.

There wasn't really anywhere to go after leaving her street, she thought of walking forward, but where would she go? She didn't want to go home, she wanted to be done with that dungeon. Tears were now dripping down her face as she walked, and she knew she looked like an absolute mess. Then she started worrying about prostitution and polygamist cults and how somebody could kidnap her. Eventually she saw the Elementary school and went into the park behind it where she imagined people like Lois had played in their youth. She was new(ish). Moving around was one of her father's occupational hazards, as promotion often meant a new city. A new city meant a new school, new friends, or no friends. Whatever, Julie was okay, actually happy, to be alone.

Immediately she sat on a swing. Nowhere else in the park was as satisfying, was it? What could a sixteen year old do, go play on the swings… on the teeter-totter? Actually, the teeter-totter sounded tempting, but you needed two people.

She had to admit she was surprised when her dad didn't immediately come looking for her. After all, it was dark out, and it was getting cold and she did feel scared…. And part of her wanted her daddy to rescue her. She was only sixteen. Sixteen years old, sixteen years young.

She'd just been to the game. She imagined in her head where people she knew were. Lois; was either with her parents or flirting with the idiot she met at the corner store who wore the matrix coat. Matt; at a party. Where there were other girls. The kind of other girl that wasn't her. But, she wasn't mad at the thought. Tyra; god only knew… and then her mind wandered to somebody who she would've never thought she'd think of on such a whim. Tim; where would he be? Thousands of possibilities flooded through her mind… in a older woman's bed? Probably not. In a rally-girls? She would admit to anybody that she thought Tim Riggins was kind of a whore. Maybe he was chugging some booze, maybe forcing some booze down Matt's throat? That made her, surprisingly, smile.

Then something she would have never expected happened. She heard footsteps behind her and then she was scared. She immediately turned around, and there, was Tim Riggins, looking her in the eye. She couldn't completely romanticize the image, because there was a beer bottle in his hand, but it was still, weirdly romantic. She blushed, "Uh… um… hi…"

"You stutter almost as much as your boyfriend."

That was a low blow. Why did everybody on the football team make fun of Matt's stuttering?! She thought it was cute. "Um…"

He sat on the swing beside hers. He brought the beer bottle to her mouth and in that moment she wanted to be that bottle. She was feeling rather light-headed in his presence.

"I saw your dad cart you off."

Under the shield of darkness, he couldn't see her tears and she'd managed to calm her voice. "Yeah." Talk about embarrassing, eh? Then they sat in silence for a few minutes. Julie secured her long locks behind her ears. She spoke again, daring to break the silence in which they operated, "Why aren't you at the victory bash?"

He leaned his head back. "I was."

"Oh."

"Oh," he mocked her, smiling.

"Was Matt there?"

"Aren't you the ball and chain."

"Aren't you charming."

"Aren't I?"

"Well, was he?"

Tim tilted her head, and she could tell from his expression that he'd seen that she'd been crying. The park was only dimly lit. "Mhmmm…" She didn't quite know how she wanted to process this information. She knew she should wonder if he was with another girl, but she knew he wasn't.

A couple more moments passed, "What did the coach do to you?"

Julie sighed. She couldn't explain it. "Are we going to work on your assignment again?"

He just looked at her, but she had a way of reading his looks. This one read, quite simply, _Well, I can't do it by myself._ Some people might find that this made it seem as if Tim was an idiot, Julie, however, thought that it made him more of a man. He could admit, at least through glances, that he needed help. "We'll work on it next Saturday okay?" she mused, and he seemed in agreement.

"Want a ride home?" She did, but she didn't want to be cramped up in that tiny space with him.

"How much have you had to drink?"

He gave her a guilty grin.

She looked at him, looking up, yet tilting her face downward, and said, "That's what I thought."

He bit his lip. Then took another swig, so he didn't seem that guilty.

"I'll walk you home."

She had to smile at that. It was so… romantic? "Okay," she smiled. Why did she feel guilty?

But she walked side by side with him home. To the edge of her driveway, and then he retreated into the cover of night. She wanted to swoon.


End file.
